Quilts 2011

06 June 2011

Naked Bed Challenge

In the midst of the kitchen remodel, I did manage to get a little sewing in. In the wee hours of the morning when I couldn't sleep, I decided to actually DO something instead of wasting the hours away watching reruns of The Nanny on Nick at Nite. I mean, after you've watched all them multiple times and you catch yourself saying lines along with Miss Fine, you remember you need to get a hobby. Oh, yes, I have a hobby... Quilting!

It required pushing things to the edges of the dining room table and to not think about what mess I was in the midst of. Sewing tunnel vision. I can do that. I had some fabric burning a hole in my pocket, longing to be made into something.

While traveling to Minneapolis' IKEA for kitcheny things, I hijacked the car to Jo-Ann's. We don't have one up where we live and I was intrigued by Denyse Schmidt's Picnic and Fairgrounds line. My dear husband helped me collect the fabrics they had and then acted as an enabler by telling me to get half yard cuts (I was only going to get quarter yards). Makes me think he was trying to make up for something.... hmmmmm.... But who am I to argue with him?!

Then last weekend we were in a different town and lo and behold there's another Jo-Ann's. Time to find some of the missing fabrics the other one didn't have. Ended up with all but five or six as I figure.

The plan for the fabric was to pair it with some fabric of my grandma's (who was an amazing quilter and seamstress). When she had to sell the farm, she had me go through her fabric and take some things with me. They've sat in my fabrics for probably 10 years, waiting for that perfect project.

Since I had signed up for the Naked Bed Challenge, it seemed like the perfect way to combine the two.

Yes, I love to sew quilts.

No, I didn't have one of my quilts on our bed.

We have a store bought quilt.

Shhhh. Please don't tell anyone.

Time for that to change. After designing a pattern, here's what I came up with:

I'm calling it Blackhoof Valley, named after the township that my grandparents lived in.